Crepusculum Stella: Twilight Star
by Silver-Serval
Summary: Stellar moves to Forks after her parents die and her school's tragedy. Stellar herself in not ‘alright’, though not clumsy, she’s not very sociable either. Only when the cute boy in her lunch hour catches her eye does she feel like she’ll fit in. EdwardOC
1. Wish

Crepusculum Stella: Twilight Star

By: Silver-Serval

**Disclaimer**: I merely own my character taking the place of Bella... Other than that, Stephenie Meyer owns the Vampire Saga.

**Summary**: Bella never existed, but Stellar did. Stellar moves to Forks after her parents disappear. Stellar herself in not 'alright', though not clumsy, she's not very sociable either. Only when the handsome boy in her lunch hour catches her eye does she ever feel like she'll fit in... But, wait... 'How did he know I was thinking that?!'

**Author's Note**: _I finished Twilight in one night. I'm rereading Eclipse at the moment - I love these books!! The_ _ideas are pouring in now, especially since I'm listening to Nightwish, my favorite band and my most serious vice. xD!_

_I used to dabble in the vampire fiction-writing, but I lost my motivation... Until I read Twilight, that is. Everything, including ideas, are back in full force. So please, forgive me if my writing is a little lame, I'm not going to steal every idea from the book... I'm pretty good at improvising! xD My writing should get better soon, so please deal some constructive criticism, and nice reviews are always welcome as well, lol._

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Chapter 1: Wish

I sighed softly, staring blankly out the window of my room. The sky was an overcast grey, the same color it had been when I'd first gotten here three days ago. Unfortunately, it was raining, sorta. Sure, it was winter, but it should surely be snowing. Who hadn't heard of a white Christmas, even if you had to use fake snow?

I scowled at the window pane, I sure hadn't. But here in Forks, they must have enjoyed the rainy weather rather than the chilly snow.

The soft clicking sound made me blink, gaze torn from the detestable weather. It wasn't as if I hated rain, I loved it in fact, but if it was too cold outside to dance in said rain, I hated it. My eyes wandered to the door which opened a crack. My breath caught in my throat for a moment until a furry head with tan pointed ears attached peeked around the door.

"Wish!" The kitten meowed at me, her aqua eyes large. "I thought you were a rat," I added sheepishly. Then again, I was stir-crazy. "Come here, Wish, come to Momma." The tailless kitten slipped through the cracked door, bounding to the bed. She meowed once more before leaping onto the quilt draped across the foot of the bed, claws allowing her to stay on the spot until I grabbed the scruff of her neck and pulled her close.

Wish rolled onto her back, aqua eyes staring at my curiously. I was immediately reminded of a ficitonal book series about warrior cats that I'd read on the plane on my way to Forks. I grinned, right hand scratching the fuzzy up-turned belly, "You'd be a rotten warriors, Wish. The Shadowclan cats would eat you up. In fact..." I mock growled while making claw motions with my hand at Wish's head.

It was just too funny when she automatically reached up to bat carelessly at my fingers. She closed her eyes to yawn, little, white kitten teeth glinting in the dim light. It seemed, to me, that I wasn't the only bored person.

"Wishy-baby, wanna go outside?" Her tan ears perked up acutely as if saying 'yes'. "Alright then, let's go walk the forest real quick. I won't be able to tomorrow, I have school." Finally. The high school had been out for nearly a week, so far as I knew, because pipes had flooded the school.

Within moments, I carefully plopped Wish on the bed and darted to my closet to find a different skirt, just in case it began raining again. I tossed a jean mini skirt onto the bed and carefully pulled off my Yuna-like skirt that I'd made myself. Wish watched my hang it, for she was still glancing curiously in my direction when I flounced over half-naked in my tank top and pale blue panties.

After slipping the skirt on, I snagged a quickly protesting Wish and bounced into the hallway. I grabbed my band wrist wraps from the table beside the door and bit one tightly between my teeth while trying not to drop the struggling Wish. Repeating the same with the other arm, I slipped my feet into a snug pair of black hiking boots beside the door. My other pets had gathered around my at this point, eyes glittering in a bemused manner.

I caught them looking at me and grinned sheepishly, "Kinslayer, you're in charge." Said tortoiseshell tabby looked stricken then meowed as if he'd understood me. Grinning like a fool, I waved at the group of felines and slipped out the open door.

Wish bit and clawed at my arm as we stepped onto the porch and I dropped her into a pot of dirt, hand wrapped around where I'd been wounded. "Wish I had an Angel!" Another odd thing, I guess, about me: my cats were all named after songs by my favorite band, Nightwish. "Bad girl! Do you want to go back inside? I'll walk alone!"

Wish seemed to look apologetic and she mewled pathetically until I picked her up at arm's distance to scrutinize her carefully. "Fine, I guess. You're forgiven." She meowed loudly and darted off in reply as I placed her on the ground. She disappeared into the knee-high grass; I was only able to follow her by the loud meowing sounds.

We hit the edge of the woods and I found her waiting, aqua eyes seeming to smile at me. Grinning in a reply, I darted ahead now and she followed in my wake.

It was a game, almost like follow the leader.

"I wish I had an angel with one moment of love, I wish I had your angel tonight." My clear, sweet voice filled the woods surrounding Wish and I as I followed again in her wake. I was content to let her lead, for now, and I continued my song. "Deep into a dying day, I took a step outside an innocent heart. Prepare to hate me, fall when I may, this night will hurt you like never before."

Wish mewled from her perch on a log nearby. I grinned, scooping her up and continuing onwards to the meadow we'd discovered the day before yesterday. "Old love, they die hard. Old lies, they die harder. I wish I had an angel for one moment of love, I wish I had your angel, your Virgin Mary undone. I'm in love with my lust, burning angel wings to dust. I

wish I had your angel tonight!" The last note of the chorus drifted eerily through the forest; a grin drifted to my face as we hit the border of the meadow.

Wish struggled from my grasp, this time without claws, and began bouncing through the damp wild flowers and knee-high weeds. I chuckled and darted forward. "I'm going down so frail and cruel. Drunken disguise changes all the rules. Old loves, they die hard. Old lies, they die harder."

I paused at the lonesome pine tree and plopped beneath it's boughs on the prickly brown-green needles. "I wish I had an angel for one moment of love, I wish I had your angel, your Virgin Mary undone. I'm in love with my lust, burning angel wings to dust. I wish I had your angel tonight."

My voice stilled, the meadow falling into a deadly silence. The only audible sounds now was Wish attacking the weeds and the distant stream that bordered the meadow to the left.

I should have been put at ease, but I wasn't. Why? The songbirds had stopped...

I glanced to the left, then the right; I could have sworn I saw some bushes rustle to my immediate left when I looked that way again. My heart stopped as I lurched forward into a flat-out run. "Wish!" The weeds moved towards me, my kitten coming to the pained call. Wish leapt into my arms as I bent low.

I barely had enough time to tuck my chin to my chest, my arms wrapping protectively around my baby, as something knocked my flat.

My head crashed into the ground first, closely followed by my side, then my knees as I rolled against the cold ground. Only a second after my eyes opened to find a pair of black eyes glaring down into mine did I realize Wish was gone.

But even then, it was hard to think while staring into those depthless topaz eyes. They seemed to see me through and through before they turned away. Only then did I realize that I hadn't been breathing. Inhaling sharply, I struggled into a sitting position. I groaned sharply, clutching at my head, falling backwards.

The depthless eyed figure stared at me, and in the coming dusk I realized dimly that I couldn't tell who it was. They turned back to the unmoving figure of Wish who made a strangled whimpering sound.

My eyes turned a hateful midnight blue and I lunged at the figure. "You hurt her! You hurt Wish!" I could've sworn that they were so stunned at my outburst that when my hands found their throat, I'd have knocked them to the ground.

Instead, I found myself pinned, wrists in a frozen grip of ice. And though I struggled, I knew that I'd failed. But I struggled anyway, threats flowing from my mouth. "Don't you dare touch her again; I'll kill you!"

A chuckled, rich with bemusement came from the figure. "Kill me? Have fun."

It irritated me even more now, "If you touch her, I will."

The man, or I was pretty sure it was a man, smirked. His velvety voice surrounded me, "I think you'll let me have that cat, as a gift for ruining my evening."

The eyes were so hypnotic, and the voice so smooth I nearly gave in. Only another strangled meow of pain from Wish broken the trance. I smiled dreamily, "No." It was all too easy to raise my knee and hit the man where it hurt the most. Of course, he grunted in pain and rolled to the side.

Since I was free, I wasted no time grabbing Wish and scrambling off in the general direction of the stream we'd found. I heard the footfalls behind me and grimaced. It was by the fate of the Goddess that I tripped and flew forward to land with my head right beside the stream.

I lunged into the extremely high, bone-numbing water, and as I resurfaced, I coughed pain flooding my body. It was quickly numbed away as I held Wish close to my body, spnning around to see a lanky figure watching with piercing black eyes.

"You cheated."

"Yeah, well you asked for it," My voice was shaky, my whole body was. In fact, my heart was threatening to stop right now, but keeping Wish safe from this lunatic kept me awake, midnight blue eyes furious.

It had just been a matter of time, I realized dully as my knees gave out and my body crashed into the freezing water. It was pure reflex that I thrust Wish above water to try and keep her somewhat dry. It was also on reflex that I tried to take a breath of air for my shrieking lungs. I swallowed water and began coughing.

A wave of darkness overtook my open eyes, willing them to drift shut. It was too easy to answer with a loving yes. With a second thought for Wish, my arm wilted and dropped into the water, my baby still carried carefully in it's grasp as I began to drift.

There was a barely audible curse and a strong arm grabbed my waist, hoisting me out fo the water with ease. My head lolled to touch my chest, Wish still clamped loosely in my hand. I felt myself carefully dropped somewhere dry, a hand slapped my back. Water spewed from my lips as I fought to claim life again.

I felt detached from my body as Wish was taken from my grip. Of course I struggled, but lips pressed against my temple right above my ear, "Shh, relax." His velvety voice soothed me slightly and I stopped, but my eyes opened wide, back to their original icy blue as I searched for my missing baby.

I had barely enough warning, Wish being dropped carefully into my lap, to hunch over, and the hand against my back disappeared. I opened my eyes again, glancing to my left.

He was gone; Wish and I were safe.

I nearly rejoiced then and there, but the pained nearly inaudible mewl from my lap caught my attention. There my baby lay, front paws moving jerkily, back not moving at all. Tears flooded my eyes, mingling with the numbing water from the flooded stream, "W-wish..."

Aqua eyes caught mine and I whimpered myself, biting hard on the inside of my cheek to keep from crying any more. "Come on, Wishy-baby. Let's get you better, 'kay?"

It was impossible to save her. It was all too obvious her spinal cord was broken. She'd die soon anyway, it should be as painless as possible, for she had given me so much and taken so little in return but a warm house and loving family.

I held the mortally wounded kitten to my chest, savoring the smell of vanilla from her recent bath. "I'm sorry you're hurt, baby, I'm so very sorry." Turning to face the stream, I held her at arm's length, icy, pained eyes regarding her carefully. "I forgive you for everything, please forgive me now..."

Wish mewled softly, purring to the best of her broken ability. As I thrust her beneath the numbing water and held her there, I broke into tears. It only seemed fitting to save her from the pain. But was I really saving myself?

I held her under so long that my hands numbed over and the stream nearly ripped her from my grasp. Carefully, to make sure that I wouldn't drop her, I slid off my tank top, my white bra showing brightly through the twilight darkness.

It was all too easy to wrap Wish up as I slowly walked up the little incline to the tree where I had been sitting. It was obvious the man was still here, I felt his eyes burning into the back of my head and neck. Pulling the cloth-wrapped kitten closer to my chest, I paused, attempting not to loose it and fall. After a moment, I regained my sense of balance and continued the final feet to the tree where I lowered the bundle to the ground.

The ground was relatively dry here, so it was somewhat easy for me to dig up a suitable sized hole. I glanced down at my stained hands and reached for Wish's bundle. I held it once mor to my chest, the sweet smell already fading form existence. "Please forgive me, Wish," And with that, I placed her in the ground and began scooping dirt over her.

The glare of the eyes lessened and I smiled bitterly, a song ringing through my head. Hey, it was fitting. "I wish I had an angel for one moment of love, I wish I had your angel, your Virgin Mary undone. I'm in love with my lust, burning angel wings to dust. I wish I had your angel tonight..." A bitter smile rose to my lips as I stood, task completed, my voice rising in sadness and grief, "I wish I had an angel, I wish I had an angel, I wish I had an angel, I wish I had an angel."

And with that, I turned, walking back towards the edge of the meadow. I needed to go home...

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_**AN**- Well? How'd you like it? Review, please!! You know you wanna..._


	2. Mistakes

Crepusculum Stella: Twilight Star

By: Silver-Serval

**Disclaimer**: I merely own Stellar! Other than that, Stephenie Meyer owns the Vampire Saga, and Nightwish owns all the songs. Though.. I do own cats with all those names... xD

**Summary**: Bella never existed, but Stellar did. Stellar moves to Forks after her parents disappear. Stellar herself in not 'alright', though not clumsy, she's not very sociable either. Only when the handsome boy in her lunch hour catches her eye does she ever feel like she'll fit in... But, wait... 'How did he know I was thinking that?!'

**Author's Note**: _I finished Twilight in one night. I'm rereading Eclipse at the moment - I love these books!! The_ _ideas are pouring in now, especially since I'm listening to Nightwish, my favorite band and my most serious vice. xD!_

_I used to dabble in the vampire fiction-writing, but I lost my motivation... Until I read Twilight, that is. Everything, including ideas, are back in full force. So please, forgive me if my writing is a little lame, I'm not going to steal every idea from the book... I'm pretty good at improvising! xD My writing should get better soon, so please deal some constructive criticism, and nice reviews are always welcome as well, lol._

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I blearily opened my eyes, the musical sound of my cell phone's alarm waking me for a cheery day of school. If I hadn't have just newly moved here, I'd have killed the phone and turned over to sleep and mope.

_Wish_... The tan and white kitten flounced into my daydream of sleep like a bullet, or like the lips to my temple. I shot upwards, flopping backwards with a grumble of pain. "Head rush," was my moan.

A gentle meow at my door drew my attention and I sat upwards hopefully. A silver cat with wise golden eyes sat in the doorway. She stood in apprehension as my face fell. "Ever Dream, what are you doing? Go find Kinslayer or Stargazer... I need to get dressed." The Egyptian mau looked somewhat disapproving and left me to dress in silence.

I closed my eyes and fought off the threatening shiver as the past night's evens caught up to me. Wish was gone, and I had killed her.

Fully dressed, I headed downstairs, head down, eyes teary. On my way downstairs, it was obvious that I was the center of attention between my cats. Amaranth, my smokey black Egyptian mau, was watching me with her depressing green-gold eyes. _She knew_. They all did.

Off the stairs, I felt the loving caresses of my babies as their tails curled around my legs, their heads all butting my shin impatiently with love. It was then that I stopped, bending over. Gathing them in my arms showed me they were still there as the soothing purrs attempted numbing the pain.

After a quick glance at the clock beside the front door, I donned my black combat boots sitting in silence beside the front door, and grabbed my backpack. I had chosen to ride my bike today; school wasn't that far.

I slipped the head phones of my lyra into my ears and turned it on, straddling the bike in the process. Making sure the straps on my backpack were tight enough, I kicked the kickstand and started the ride.

I can swear that it was impossible to not sing to the songs I chosen today, so obviously I sang beneath my breath as I dodged cars and the walking pedestrians. "Caress the one, the never-fading rain in your heart, the tears of snow-white sorrow. Caress the one, the hiding Amaranth in the land of the daybreak."

I got a couple odd stares but ignored them. It probably wouldn't be too nice of me to stop and beat them up on the first day of my new school. Nearly ten minutes later, I arrived at school humming the last chords of Ever Dream.

Now, if one would look carefully, they would find it slightly odd that I had a cat named after a song. If they looked twice, it was all my cats and only one band's songs.

With a grin, I slid my leg over to the other side of the bike and got off to walk the bicycle to the rack where three others were locked. After that, I headed inside to the office.

I peeked inside the dimly lit room, "Hello?" At first, it seemed as if no one was here yet, but a young woman with long white-blonde hair approached the desk.

"Yes?"

"My name's-"

"You're Stellar Asuran," she grinned. "My name's Ms. Meyrin, and I suppose you'd like a map and your schedule, right?"

I nodded. She handed me a paper from the top of a small stack, "Here's your map," she dug around through a manilla folder for a moment. "And here's your schedule. You'll need to get all seven of these slips signed by your teachers, then please return them here after school. Alright?"

I nodded with a smile, my eyes drifting to the map. "Yes ma'am." I moved to the door and began searching for my first hour class, A Cappella choir with Ms. Cantrix.

Of course, I got lost on the way to the choir room while searching for my locker. Only when I looked at the map did I realize that the choir room was just around the corner. I whistled lowly and slammed the door shut. I now had the map, schedule, and a much lighter bag with me as I worked my way to the classroom.

The room itself was empty at the moment minus a woman with short black hair and another woman with mid-back length dirty blonde. "Excuse me," I called tentatively. Both heads shot up towards me, but one quickly looked away.

The slightly older-looking woman, the black haired, stepped closer, "My name's Ms. Cantrix, how may I help you," she paused, not knowing my name.

"My name's Stellar Asuran, I just moved here and I was put in your class this hour and next."

Ms. Cantrix smiled kindly, "Well, we sing here, so I guess I'm going to need to place you. Have you even sung before, Stellar?"

"Yes, ma'am. In my old school, Carpe Somnium, I was an alto in all three choirs. The special group, Project X, said I was a baritone."

She nodded, "I'll take your word for it, so please join the alto section," she motioned to the group of chairs closest to the piano. "Also, please meet Ms. Cithara, our accompanist." I smiled at the blonde woman and walked slowly to a seat near the back. Just as I hit the middle rows, a soft pinging sound filled the air and students began to gather in.

That was the bell, obviously.

There was nothing too spectacular about either choir class. Ms. Cantrix didn't make me get up to introduce myself either, so I was sure she and I would get along well.

Next was Geometry, right down the hall from choir and my locker. It went alright, but I found it disturbing to know that a boy was watching me with love-struck eyes.

Fourth hour was an Outdoors class with another wonderful teacher who didn't make me introduce myself. Mrs. Alauda was in her mid-thirties and had two kids half my age. She found it odd that I dyed my bangs a silver-blue, but she agreed that at one point in time, she'd dyed her own to a dark green. I was still laughing as I headed to last lunch.

To anyone who didn't know, there were quite a few kids here, maybe five hundred, so they divided the lunch periods into four groups. I was in last lunch, which I liked, but I hated now, too. I didn't know anyone yet.

I stepped from the line and headed to and empty table. As I was nibbling on the roll I'd gotten, I noticed three kids coming my way. Obviously, I glanced up.

One was a girl, eyes a deep blue-green, hair a mess of pink streaked black. She grinned and plopped down carelessly to my right. A boy with the exact same eyes sat on the other side of her, his dark brown hair a scary contrast to her own. The final boy, black-haired, black-eyed, sat to my left.

The girl grinned, blue-green eyes mischievous, "You must be Stellar Asuran, my name's Icarus Toyja, blondie's my brother, Iggy, and Mr. Dark-man is Ozymandias Xiao."

I nodded slowly, "Nice to meet you Icarus, Iggy, Ozymandias."

Ozymandias grinned a crooked smile while fighting with his milk bottle, "So, how do you like Forks? Not too quiet for you yet?"

I smiled in a sad way, "Yeah, I'm having a blast here." My attention turned to Icarus, "You know, I could swear-"

"That you know me? Yeah, I get that a lot. Anyway, Stellar? Did you ever go to a school named Carpe Somninum?"

"Somnium," I corrected automatically. I frowned, "Why?"

"Did you ever have a penpal in, probably, third grade, or something, who called herself Mori?"

I grinned with the sudden memory, "Yeah, she got me hooked onto learning Latin, why?" I eyed Icarus with an odd stare.

She merely grinned, "Hiya, Mors."

I blinked, blinked a second time, squealed joyously, then hugged her. "Mori!"

Icarus blushed slightly, "I missed you too. You still obsessed with Nightwish?"

"Oh course!" At this point I turned to the boys, "How long have you guys lived here anyway?"

"Whole life," grumbled Ozymandias. A grin lit up his face for a moment, "But I've learned a lot about cars and motorcycles... So if you ever need help with anything, I'm here to help you."

I punched the air cheerfully, "Alright! I suck at that, if you can't tell." Ozymandias grinned like a fool until Icarus reached over to thump him over the head.

"He's a idiot, ignore him." I chuckled and shoved some food into my mouth, grateful that this school wouldn't be like last years. I wouldn't be the Outcast here, I would have friends. Just then, a few more people I recognized from my Outdoors class joined us and began chatting animatedly to Icarus and Ozymandias.

I glanced around still chuckling over Icarus. Every table had at least six or seven people seated around a circular table. Suddenly, I froze, breath catching in my throat.

They were, sitting in the corner of the caffeteria, as far away as possible form where the teachers on lunch duty. There were five of them. They weren't talking, and they weren't eating, though they each had a tray of untouched food in front of them. They weren't gawking at me, unlike most of the other student body in the room, so I figured it was relatively safe to stare. But something about them managed to catch, and hold, my attention.

They didn't look anything alike. Of the three boys, one was big - muscled like a serious weight lifter would be, with dark, curly hair. Another was taller, leaner, but still muscular, and honey blond. The last was lanky, less bulky, with untidy, bronze-colored hair. He was much more boyish than the others, who looked like they could be college students, or teachers here rather than students.

The girls were opposites. The tall one was statuesque. She had a beautiful figure, the kind you saw on the cover of _Sports Illustrated_ swimsuit issue, the kind that made every girl around her take a hit on her self-esteem just by being in the same room. Her hair was golden, gently waving to the middle of her back. The short girl was pixie-like, thin in the extreme, with small features. Her hair was a deep black, much like the black of Icarus', cropped short and pointing in every direction.

And yet, they were all exactly alike. Every one of them was a chalky pale, the palest of all the students living in this sunless town. Paler than me, the indoors nut. They all had dark eyes, despite the range in hair tones. They also had dark shadows beneath those darkened eyes - purplish, bruise-like shadows. As if they were all suffering from a sleepless night, or almost done recovering from a broken nose. Though all their noses, all their features, were straight, perfect, angular.

But all this was not why I couldn't glance away.

I stared because their faces, so different, so similar, were all devastatingly, inhumanly beautiful. They were faces you never expected to see except perhaps on the airbrushed pages of a fasion magazine. Or painted by an old master as the face of an angel. It was hard to decide who looked more beautiful - maybe the perfect blond girl, or the bronze-haired boy.

They were all looking away - away from each other, away from the other students, away from anything in particular, as far as I could tell. As I watched, the small, pixie-like girl rose with her tray - unopened soda, unbitten apple - and walked away with a quick, graceful lope that belonged on a runway strip. I watched, amazed at her lithe dancer's step, till she dumped her tray and glided through the door in front of my current table faster than I would have thought possible. My eyes darted back to the others, who sat unchanging.

"Who are _they_?" I asked Icarus who was currently staring blankly at an open book for her next class.

As she looked up to see who I meant - though already knowing, probably, from my tone - suddenly he looked at her, the thinner one, the boyish one, the youngest, perhaps. He looked ta me neighbor for perhaps a fraction of a second, and then his dark eyes flickered to mine.

He looked away quickly, more quickly than I could, though in a flush of embarrassment I dropped my eyes at once. In that brief flash of a glance, his face held nothing of interest - as if she'd called his name and he'd looked up in involuntary response, already having decided not to answer.

Icarus giggled in embarrassment, looking at the table like I did.

"That's Edward and Emmett Cullen, and Rosalie and Jasper Hale. The one who left was Alice Cullen; they all live together with Dr. Cullen and his wife."

I glanced sideways at the beautiful boy, who was looking at his tray now, picking a bagel to pieces with long, pale fingers without really eating it. His mouth was moving very quickly, his too-perfect lips barely opening. The other three still looked away, but I got the feeling that he was speaking quietly to them.

Strange, unpopular names, I thought slowly. The kinds of names grandparents had. But maybe, that was in vogue here - small town names? I finally remembered that the girl sitting to Ozymandias' left was named Tiffany, a perfectly common name. There were four or five girls named Tiffany back in my grade at Carpe Somnium.

"They are... very nice looking." I struggled with the conspicuous understatement.

"Yes!" Icarus agreed with another giggle. "They're all _together_ though."

I stared at her, "Huh?"

Tiffany interrupted into the conversation before Icarus could continue. "Emmett and Rosalie, and Jasper and Alice, she means. And they _live_ together." Her husky voice held all the condemnation of the small town, i though critically. But, if i was being honest, I had to admit, even in Los Angles, it would cause gossip.

"Which ones are the Cullens?" I asked. "They don't look related..."

"Oh, they're not," assured Icarus with a meaningful glance at Tiffany who tried to looked sheepish. "Dr. Cullen is really young, in his twenties or thirties. They're all adopted. The Hales _are_ brother and sister, twins - the blondes - and they're foster children."

"They look a little old for foster children."

"They are now," Icarus agreed," Jasper and Rosalie are both eighteen, but they've been with Mrs. Cullen since they were eight. She's their aunt or something of the sort."

I nodded, "That's really kind of nice - for them to take care of all those kids like that, when they're so young and everything."

"I guess so," Tiffany admitted reluctantly, and I got the feeling she didn't really like the doctor or his wife for some reason. With the glances she was throwing at their adopted children, I would normally presume the reason was jealousy. "I think that Mrs. Cullen can't have any kids, though," she added, as if that lessened their immense kindness.

Throughout this conversation, I had been stealing glances again and again at the table where the strange family ate. They continued to stare at the walls and not eat.

"Have they always lived here in Forks?" I asked to Icarus.

"No," she said in a voice that implied it should have been obvious, even to a new arrival like me. "They just moved down two years ago from somewhere in Alaska."

I felt a surge of pity, and relief. Pity because, as beautiful as they were, they were outsiders, clearly not accepted. Relief that I wasn't the only newcomer here, and certainly not the most interesting by any standard, even though my school had been in a shooting recently before I'd moved here.

As I examined them again, the youngest, one of the Cullens, looked up and met my gaze, this time with evident curiosity in his expression. As I looked swiftly away, it seemed to me that his glance had held some vague unmet expectation.

"Which one is the boy with the reddish brown hair?" I asked. I peeked at him from the corner of my eyes, and he was still staring at me, but not gawking like the other students had been today - he had a slightly frustrated expression. I looked down again.

"That's Edward," announced Tiffany darkly. "He's gorgeous, of course, but don't waste your time. He doesn't date. Apparently, none of us here are good-looking enough for him." She sniffled haughtily. I tried not to smile and wondered how many times he'd turned the red-head down.

I bit my bottom lip, hard, to hide my smile, then I glanced up. His face was turned away, but I thought that his cheek appeared lifted, as if he was smiling, too.

After a few more minutes, the four of them stood and walked to dump their trays. Except, it wasn't a walk, but more of a graceful dance. They were all that way, even the big, brawny one. It was unsettling to watch. The one named Edward didn't look at me again.

When the bell chimed for the beginning of fifth hour, I stood and scrambled clumsily out the door, Icarus' arm looped tightly through one of mine. At some point during lunch while I'd been listening to Tiffany rant, she's snatched my schedule and gleefully announced that I had next hour with her. Oh, goody.

When I stepped into the classroom, Icarus paused from dragging me around to go and blithly tackle a younger, scrawny girl to the ground. I winced as both hit the ground with an audible thump, then hurried to the desk in the opposite corner of the room to meet my teacher and get my slip signed.

His name was Mr. Dirumpti, my Chemistry teacher, and I was very sure I'd come to like him. Though he looked nearly sixty years old, and though he was nearly completely bald - the remaining strands were all pure white - his voice was kind and calm. Another plus to his nature was that he wasn't mean enough to make me stand and introduce myself. All he did do was make me sign for a multi-colored textbook and send me to the only open seat near the back of the room.

Halfway there, I stumbled. I shot a glare at the girl who'd obviously tripped me. Tiffany scowled, eyes threatening, until I got back up. Only then did I bother to notice why she'd done so - I probably might have done the same in her shoes. The only open seat was right next to Edward Cullen. He stared rudely at me , the strangest expression on his face - hostile, furious. I glanced away involuntarily to watch my feet and sat down beside him. I, myself, was overly bewildered by the antagonistic stare he'd given me.

That was when something hit me - his eyes were a deep coal black.

As I slid my book to the corner of the table, I glanced at him from the corner of my eyes, my movements never stopping as more kids flooded into the room. Edward's posture changed in the extreme. He was leaning away from me now, sitting on the extreme edge of his chair and averting his face like he smelled something bad. Inconspicuously, I sniffled carefully at some of the loose stands of hair drifting down from my make-shift pony tail. It smelled like gardenia, but with a hint of vanilla, _like Wish_, and at the thought of the dead kitten, I had to stiffle a moan of uncomfort. But that odor was innocent enough, right? I wished I could take my hair down and make a cutain or something so I wouldn't have to be in his sight the rest of the hour.

Unfortunately, the lecture was on the number-line we'd be using the rest of the year - something I'd already studied. I took notes carefully anyway, looking at my paper practically the whole time.

Occasionally, I couldn't help but glance at the strange boy to my left. During the whole class, he never once relaxed his stiff position on the edge of the chair, sitting as far away as possible from me. I could see the hand on his right left was clenched into a fist, as if he wanted to punch something - or someone - and I could see tendons standing out under his extremely pale skin. This, too, he never relaxed. He had the long sleeves of his white shirt rolled up to his elbows, and his forearm was surprisingly hard and muscular beneath his light skin, He wasn't nearly as slight as he looked next to his burly brother.

The class seemed to drag on longer than the other, even longer than Outdoors class with Mrs. Alauda. Was it because the day was over halfway gone, or because I was waiting for his too-tight fist to loosen? it never did; he continued to sit so still that it looked like he wasn't breathing. What was wrong with him? Was this his normal behavior? I questioned my quick judgement on Tiffany's bitterness at lunch today; maybe she wasn't quite as resentful as I'd first thought.

It couldn't have had anything to do with me; I was new, he didn't know me from Icarus. And believe me, she'd made it quite clear that she didn't do much with the stoic boy.

I peeked up at him one more time as we waited as a group for Mr. Dirumpti to find our homework. I regretted the action immediately. He was glaring down at me again, his black eyes full of revulsion. As I flinched away from him, shrinking against my chair, the phrase _if looks could kill_ suddenly ran through my head.

And then, the bell chimed loudly, making me jump in sudden fright. Edward Cullen was out f his seat in a snap. He fluidly rose - he was much, much taller than I'd thought - his back to me, and then he was out the door before anyone else was out of their seat.

I sat frozen in my seat, staring blankly after him. He was so... so mean! So unfair! I hadn't even done anything, had I? I began gathering up my things quickly, unsure where my next class was, hoping to have enough time to find it. i tried to block the sudden pulse of dispair that welled through me - for some odd reason, my temper had been really soft lately, I cried easily now.

"Hey, aren't you Stellar Asuran?" A boy with jade green eyes was at my side now, a grin lighting up his boyish face.

"Yes," I answered curtly, heading for the door while staring blankly at my schedule.

"I'm Riley Gallagher, nice to meet you."

"Hello, Riley."

"Where are you headed next?"

"I'm heading for reading lab, but I don't know where it is."

He beamed, "I have the same class, come on, I'll walk you." He seemed thrilled, even though all you did in reading lab was supposedly read and do things like that.

We walked together down the band room hallway until we hit a mostly darkened room. He barged through the door grinning like a fool. He sure was a character. He sat next to me at the computer line after I got my slip signed. It turned out that he, too, was in A Capella with me, then English after this. Oh, goody!

Reading lab passed in a blur. All I really remember was that I took a test which insisted that I was reading around 110 lines per minutes; after that, we read some interesting articles on money and it's history.

Let me tell you one interesting thing - you never want to pay through the nose. I didn't need a new slit in my nose, thanks. You might want one, but that's totally up to you!

English rushed by in a quick paced blur of sounds and colors as well. And, unluckily, I managed to be sat right behind Riley. After sitting for nearly an hour behind an idiot who happened to be overly friendly, I was completely over-joyed to find out that my next hour, my last hour, was a free hour. Meaning in short? I could go home now! But first, I had to drop off my sheet that was signed by all my teachers in the office.

I opened the door in a gust of icy wind. I recognized Edward Cullen by his tousled bronze hair as he argue with Ms. Meyrin in his low, attractive voice. He didn't appear to notice me, but Ms. Meyrin sure did - she briefly smiled before resuming listening to Edward.

He was asking - practically begging - to trade both fifth-hour Chemistry and seventh-hour English to another hour - any other hour. It hurt to believe that this was all about me and my moving here - and that's why I forced myself to admit that something had obviously happened before, probably in fourth or third hour. Maybe in fifth-hour before I walked into the room. I refused to imagine why he wanted to trade seventh-hour English, too. He had absolutely no reason to hate me yet!

Just then, an aid walked through the door, the cold and icy wind following in her wake. Edward froze and turned his head slightly in my direction, back uncannily stiffened.

For one brief second, I was filled with genuine fear as his hate-filled, piercing coal-black eyes caught my ice-colored blue. He turned back to her, voice velvety. "Never mind, then. I can see that it's impossible this late in the year, but thank you for trying." And with a curt nod to the both of us, he seemed to glide past me and left.

Ms. Meyrin smiled cheerfully at me - I got the feeling she would make a wonderful mother some day, "Have a good day today, dear?"

"Yeah," I lied, passing her the signed paper. "A perfect day, thanks." My face showed calm, but my stomach churned with inner distress and fear - I had learn to keep all emotions secret after my birth parent's deaths, especially after they day they died, the day after my school's multiple shooting.

"Welcome, sweetheart. See you tomorrow."

I nodded, backing out of the room. The cold December air hit me like a hammer as soon as I shut the door. Coughing roughly, I froze, breath caught in my lungs, and dropped to my knees, hands clenching my sides until the fiery pain subsided. When I reopened my eyes, blood flecks stained the wet cement of the sidewalk below me. As I watched, they spread out into the wet traces of the concrete where the rain had hit it.

A low moan. I struggled to my feet, scrambling in the general direction of my twnty-one speed. Halfway there, I froze again, exhaling sharply. The breath came out as puff of white cloud. Icarus watched me with silent, distressed blue-green eyes. Then, the motioned me closer with a tight-lipped, worried smile.

"I'm car pooling today, Mors. Store the bike in the back of my van and we can go."

"W-what?" I stared at Icarus, incredulous. "Say what now?"

"I see a lot more than you give me credit. And it probably, what, a twenty minute ride to your new home? You mentioned it was by the ocean earlier; humor me, Mors."

At that exact moment, before I could stutter out an answer, Ozymandias slipped out fo the double doors behind Icarus. It must have been a routine thing, for when he inhaled silently, she spun around.

"Hey, Oz!"

A dejected sigh. "Humor me, just once, Ic. I'm coming out a new door tomorrow," Ozymandias was frowning slightly as he said this, but I ignored the look of rejection he gave Icarus.

"Ic," I said questionably.

"He thinks Icarus is a guy's name, and then, once he looked up Mori, he refused to call me that... So he chose Ic. Pretty lame, huh? I needed a new name, as if 'Iggy's sis' wasn't good enough." At this point, Oz looked pleased, and I couldn't help but wonder what sort of hold Icarus had a hold of Ozymandias' heart. Icarus scowled and dug around in her pockets for a key to open the back of her midnight blue van. It seemed that she'd gotten tired of waiting for me to do it.

"Stealing bicycles now, Ic? That's a sin!" He faked a gasp, still grinning crookedly, dark eyes glimmering with mirth.

Icarus continued to scowl and turned to me to say in a loud stage whisper, "Ignore him, I heard he feeds pigeons after dark!"

I grinned, Oz faked another gasp, and Icarus attempted to shove the last of the bike into the carpeted back of the van. We traded grins, the three of us, waved farewell, and Icarus and I got into the van, leaving Ozymandias to go find his truck.

We rode home in mostly silence, only the radio kept it from being totally quiet. Only once did Icarus speak, mostly to explain that she'd bought the van from a hippie who'd known her father. The carpet was real and when she really wanted to, she could remove the top of the van. Later that night, after finishing my homework, I locked myself away in the bathroom, pulling the wrist wraps bearing the logo of my favorite bands from my wrists, the sadness of the previous night engulfing me in inexplicable sorrow.

On my right wrist, thin, white scars lined the creases in skin, hiding easily in the bends. A few lined further down my arm, but they were easily explained to be cat scratches - I did have enough temperamental cats for that excuse. My left wrist was unscathed.

Taking my trusty razor, I traced the blade over my left wrist. W. The lines faded away much sooner than I'd hoped they would, but I pressed down again, deeper this time. The blood oozed from the cuts as my body began automatically fighting away infection that threatened to take hold of the wound.

I smirked. With a sense of twisted relief, I was happy again. That would never fade. Soon, Wish would be imprinted upon my body forever with the rest of my mistakes. From now on, Wish would never be able to fade from me, body, memory, or blood.

That night, I think I cried myself to sleep.

* * *

_**AN**- Well? How'd you like it? Review, please!! You know you wanna..._


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